The Lessons of a Brand

After fifteen years with InVigor hybrid canola I am leaving. And if you’re thinking that it is because InVigor is just not the same and your skepticism is running wild please sit down, it is not because of all the negative things you are assuming. I do not have to put up with reading #agtwitter cyber bullies today…I will go back to rolling my eyes on Monday. Today I am a free agent and unbridled.

I left for an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to for my career and family. It was not an easy decision, InVigor has been my longest and most consistent relationship, I have been in mourning over this break up. However, this blog is not about me crying over canola. I would like to share the life lessons that I have garnered from the second biggest brand in Western Canadian Agriculture, InVigor. (JD you’re number one in farmer’s hearts and wallets)

Performance and consistency are the words that I wrote many times, placed next to a brand ad or a yield chart. Little did I know that it was well before I was writing copy that those words meant more to me than advertising to a farmer. To me under any circumstance if you are always showing up authentically, in the best way you know how, and on a consistent basis, people will notice. Perhaps someone might outshine you here and there but if when people talk about you, they think of your work ethic and someone you can always count on then you’re living up to the InVigor mantra of performance and consistency.

When you’re the best (I am allowed to say that now because I am writing this independently, sorry legal) you will always have a target on your back. And man, have the shots taken increased in the past few years for InVigor. This lesson was always a hard one for me because I will cut a bitch, but if I gained anything here it was to take all the negativity with grace. ***insert inspirational quote here, haha*** Typically the bombs that people launch in a person’s direction is their lack of ability to look in the mirror and identify their inner trauma that is causing them to attack you. Trust yourself and know which goals you are reaching for and the haters will fall to the side.

If I look back on everyone I have known that has worked with InVigor all I can think of their passion for the brand. It doesn’t matter your role in the organization, you understood that you were apart of something special. From the team filling bags in Lethbridge to the man behind the brand (Blaine <3) they can all shout from the roof tops what makes InVigor the best. When I look back I know that it instilled a passion in me for whatever I am doing. I am bringing that passion with me; people gravitate to your energy and will believe in your vision.

I will never forget the day that a group of farmers that we took to Germany gave Bart Lambert, the man behind pod shatter reduction canola, a standing ovation for changing the way that they farm as well as the whole canola market. It takes a lot to make a German researcher cry, but there were definitely some misty eyes that day. Launching that technology to the market will always been near and dear to my heart because there is nothing I like more than being efficient…this is what working for Germans for 15 years (I am including 2 summer student years) will do that to you.

As I pack my bags and move to a new organization, I am proud to bring all these lessons with me. I will always believe in InVigor and the strength it brings to Canadian Agriculture. I am honored to have been apart of its amazing history (and my short-term modelling career) and I look forward to it’s amazing future. I will never stop being your hype girl!